A’s eke out an attendance increase

The last home game of the year for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs is always a sad day. As Paul Simon sang, it’s a reminder of the approach of winter and beyond that, the final third strike.

There were three men down

And the season lost

And the tarpaulin was rolled

Upon the winter frost

In the Bay Area, though, gloomy thoughts are kept at least partially at bay since baseball weather has only recently arrived when the players clear out their lockers.

Sunday’s crowd of 21,030 was surprisingly lively considering the A’s elimination from the race and the one-sided score, with loud “Let’s Go Oakland” chants during the six-run eighth-inning rally sparked by the River Cats’ regular lineup.

For the year, the Oakland A’s drew 1.418 million, ending a six-year streak of attendance declines with a bare increase of 10,000. If Cleveland averages less than about 16,300 during the three-game series with Detroit that starts tonight, the A’s will avoid having the lowest attendance for the second straight year. Let’s go, storms off Lake Erie!

This was the 50th consecutive season I’ve attended at least one MLB game and it will be a keeper. I’d enjoyed two of the A’s championship seasons, but had never seen a no-hitter, let alone a perfect game like Dallas Braden’s.

The lowlight came at one of the July games against the Yankees when we were outshouted as well as outscored. The promotions crew gave out baseballs with A’s insignias on the way out, and one Yankee fan complained loudly, “Where are the Yankee balls?” Add your own punchline.